Karakal (MXMXB)

Chapter 1: Connor Introduction

     The wind flowed through the trees as the caracal walks through the forest. The trees swayed from side to side.  The caracal's muscles tensed and relaxed with each step forward. His paws hit the ground without so much as a whisper. His tail hung low behind him, it too swayed side to side.

     The caracal was focused on finding food. It's been weeks since he's had his last meal. With no prey in the forest it quickly became a struggle with finding food. 

     He had been living there for almost all his life and has never left it, unless he was in dire need of food.

    His main food source was the fish that swam in the ocean. While salt water fish had not always been his favorite, after living with only a few selected choices it became bearable. 

     The forest stood many feet taller than the four foot cat that walked over the land. The leaves on the tree's were starting to fall to the ground as the season of fall was slowly starting to present itself. The tree's leaves were that of a red - orange color. Almost like a sunset presenting itself to the world. 

    It was beautiful, but the caracal hadn't noticed the changes. His mind was focused on one thing, and one thing only. Food. The fish had recently been disappearing. The caracal was worried, not only was the food disappearing, the nights were getting colder. His short fur hasn't been keeping him warm at night. Normally this time of year was warmer, but for some reason there has been multiple cold fronts coming in from the north. He had time to prepare years ago. Not this year, this year he had no time. 

     He used his nose to direct him towards the ocean. The scent of salt and fish guided his body towards it. As he followed his senses the ocean came to view and the vast ocean showed itself to the caracal. 

    The short waves came right to his paws. It was like the ocean wanted to say hello to the caracal. Since its been weeks since they'd last seen each other. 

     The caracal stepped into the small waves, accepting the greeting. He walked in carefully. The ocean was cold, maybe even colder than the air. The caracal ignored it, he knew that without a fish to eat he wouldn't last another week. 

    The sun was directly above him, making it easier for the caracal to get a insight on where the fish were swimming. There were only a few large fish, but there was an abundance of smaller fish. 

     The caracal had no interest in the small fish, they would only satisfy his hunger for a few hours. It was a waste of his time to even attempted to catch one.

     The larger fish were another story. one could last a week, two could last two weeks, and so on. The freshness of them decreased every moment he waited to eat them, so he knew he only was to catch a couple. Hopefully some fat and juicy ones. Ones that would last longer than the average fish.

     He continued walking further into the ocean. He was trying to find the larger ones. Today though, there were only the average sized ones. He wasn't going to have a feast tonight, he was going to have a single meal.

    A larger fish slowly swam towards him. Totally unaware of the paws waiting for it. From the colors it was a female. They're usually duller in color. Seeing as they aren't the ones trying to impress. To the caracal, a fish was a fish. 

     The fish was in leaping length but the caracal knew any advantage he had was better for his chances of success. 

     The caracal slowly and carefully lowered its body toward the water. His legs tensed as he got ready to pounce. 

     A large splash surrounded the caracal as it leaped into the ocean were the fish laid. The caracal made sure to leap in front of the fish because he knew the water was deceiving him. 

     He knew it was a successful catch when he felt the fish bones crunch in his jaws. He raised his head and looked around, he had never seen another predator before but he didn't want to be caught off guard. Fish ate other fish but compared to the caracal they could do nothing when it came to stealing his meal.

     The water sloshed around his paws as he walked out of the water. He knew he had to get the freezing cold water off his short fur so he started rolling around on the ground. Fish still in his mouth of course. He didn't want to take any chances. He was hoping the grass would dry him off some how but not today. With all the leaves on the ground and the rainstorm that passed a few days ago, the ground was still damp. All he did was get himself muddy. Which didn't sit very well with him.

     He was not one who liked being dirty, If it was on purpose he would be okay, but he had just cleaned himself this morning. By the time he got back to his shelter it would be dry and hard to get off his fur.

     He showed his frustration by squeezing his jaws around the fish. He could feel the fishes guts work around his teeth as they poked right through them. It reminded him of the fresh kill he just made, it lightened his mood. Suddenly okay with being dirty as now he could last a few days until another meal.

    He stood up and shook out his fur. The fish shook in his mouth as a last attempt at a struggle. It failed. The caracal shook its head and squeezed tighter. Blood started to pour out of the fish and gather in the caracal's mouth. The caracal relished the taste of the blood. It's been a while. Having diminished his anger, he started walking to his shelter.  

A/N --

Most won't read this but if you do please note all my chapters will be above 1000 words. I like my chapters between 1000-2000. Usually it won't get to 2000 as i will probably separate it into two chapters. 

Anyways hope you like the book

NUMBER OF WORDS: 1066 (INCLUDING AUTHOR'S NOTE)